Eugene Field
| birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri | death_date = November | death_place = Chicago, Illinois | occupation = American writer | spouse = | parents = | children = Eugene Field, Jr. }} Eugene Field, Sr. (September 2, 1850 - November 4, 1895) was an American poet and prose writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. Life Youth and education Field was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Field's father, attorney Roswell Martin Field, was famous for his representation of Dred Scott, the slave who sued for his freedom. Field filed the complaint in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case (sometimes referred to as "the lawsuit that started the Civil War") on behalf of Scott in the federal court in St. Louis, Missouri, from whence it progressed to the U.S. Supreme Court. After the death of his mother in 1856, Eugene Field was raised by a cousin, Mary Field French, in Amherst, Massachusetts.Below, Ida Comstock (1898). Eugene Field in His Home. E.P. Dutton & Co., p. 19. Field attended Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His father died when Eugene turned 19, and he subsequently dropped out of Williams after 8 months. He then went to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, but dropped out after a year, followed by the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri, where his brother Roswell was also attending. He tried acting, studied law with little success, and also wrote for the student newspaper. He then set off for a trip through Europe but returned to the United States 6 months later, penniless. Career Field set to work as a journalist for the St. Joseph Gazette in Saint Joseph, Missouri, in 1875. That same year he married Julia Comstock (with whom he had 8 children). For the rest of his life he arranged for all the money he earned to be sent to his wife, saying that he had no head for money himself. Field soon rose to become city editor of the Gazette. He became known for his light, humorous articles written in a gossipy style, some of which were reprinted by other newspapers around the country. It was during this time that he wrote the famous poem "Lovers Lane" about a street in St. Joseph, Missouri. From 1876 through 1880 Field lived in St. Louis, as an editorial writer for the Morning Journal and subsequently for the Times-Journal. After a brief stint as managing editor of the Kansas City Times, he worked for 2 years as editor of the Denver, Colorado, Tribune.Below (1898), pp. 50-52. In 1883 Field moved to Chicago, Illinois where he wrote a humorous newspaper column called Sharps and Flats for the Chicago Daily News.Below (1898), pp. 57-58. His home in Chicago was near the intersection of N. Clarendon and W. Hutchinson in the neighborhood now known as Buena Park.Holden, Greg (2001). Literary Chicago: A Book Lover's Tour of the Windy City. Lake Claremont Press, p. 153. ISBN 1893121011 He first started publishing poetry in 1879, when his poem "Christmas Treasures" appeared in A Little Book of Western Verse.Below (1898), p. 58. Over a dozen volumes of poetry followed and he became well known for his light-hearted poems for children, perhaps the most famous of which is "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod." Field also published a number of short stories, including "The Holy Cross" and "Daniel and the Devil." , an illustration from Poems of Childhood by Eugene Field]]Field died in Chicago of a heart attack at the age of 45.http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E5DF1E3DE433A25756C0A9679D94649ED7CF He is buried at the Church of the Holy Comforter in Kenilworth, Illinois.Federal Writers' Project (1939). Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide. A.C. McClurg & Co., p. 413. His 1901 biography by S. Thompson states that he was originally buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago,Thompson, Slason (1901). Eugene Field: A Study in Heredity and Contradictions. C. Scribner's Sons, p. 319. but his son-in-law, Senior Warden of the Church of the Holy Comforter, had him reinterred on March 7, 1926.CHURCH OF THE HOLY COMFORTER, THE DOVE, VOLUME 22, ISSUE 3, March 2007''http://www.holycomforter.org/documents/marnewsletter.pdf Quotations Reviewing an actor named Creston Clarke in the title role of King Lear, Field commented that, "Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace." Recognition Field has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.Danilov, Victor J. (1997). ''Hall of Fame Museums: A Reference Guide. Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 211. ISBN 0313300003 His boyhood home in St. Louis has been designated a National Historic Landmark, and is now open to the public as The Eugene Field House and St. Louis Toy Museum.Walker, Patricia Chambers, and Graham Thomas (1999). Directory of Historic House Museums in the United States. Rowman Altamira, p. 196. ISBN 0742503445 His Denver home has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Several of his poems were set to music with commercial success. Many of his works were accompanied by paintings from Maxfield Parrish. A memorial to him, a statue of the "Dream Lady" from his poem "Rock-a-by-Lady", was erected in 1922 at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. There is also a park and fieldhouse named in his honor in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood. In nearby Oak Park, Illinois, another park is named in his honor. A statue of Wynken, Blynken and Nod adorns Washington Park, near Field's Denver home. Numerous elementary schools throughout the Midwest are named for him, e.g. Eugene Field Elementary School in Wheeling, Illinois,(Rock Island, Illinois) Park Ridge, Illinois, St. Joseph, Missouri, Hannibal, Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, Mexico, Missouri, Neosho, Missouri, Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Webb City, Missouri, Manhattan, Kansas, Ottawa, Kansas, Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Beaumont, Texas. There is also a Eugene Field Elementary School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Silverton, Oregon, Littleton, Colorado, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Chicago, Illinois, Altus, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Hugo, Oklahoma and San Diego, California. A branch of the Denver Public Library is named after Field. A dormitory in the Orchard Hill residential area at the University of Massachusetts Amherst also bears Field's name. There is also an apartment building in Denver, Colorado's Poet's Row named after him. Publications Poetry *''A Little Book of Western Verse. Chicago: Wilson, 1889 ** enlarged, New York: Scribners, 1890; London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1891). *Second Book of Verse. Chicago: Stone, 1892. *Songs, and other verse. New York: Scribners, 1896. *Field Flowers. Chicago: Monument Fund Committee, 1896.Field Flowers (1896), Internet Archive. Web, Aug. 11, 2013. *A Little Book of Tribune Verse: A number of hitherto uncollected poems, grave and gay'' (edited by Joseph G. Brown). Denver: Tandy, Wheeler, 1901. *''Hoosier Lyrics'' (edited by Charles Walter Brown). Chicago: M.A. Donohue, 1905. *''John Smith, U.S.A.'' (edited by Charles Walter Brown). Chicago: M.A. Donohue, 1905. *''The Clink of the Ice, and other poems worth reading(edited by Charles Walter Brown). Chicago: M.A. Donohue, 1905. *The Poems of Eugene Field'' (complete edition). New York: Scribners, 1919. Novels *''The House: An Episode in the Lives of Reuben Baker, Astronomer, and of His Wife Alice. New York: Scribners, 1896. *The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac. New York: Scribners, 1896; London: Scribners / Lane, 1896. Short fiction *A Little Book of Profitable Tales. Chicago: Wilson, 1889; London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1891). *The Holy Cross, and other tales. Cambridge, UK, & Chicago: Stone & Kimball, 1893 *Second Book of Tales. New York: Scribners, 1896. *Florence Bardsley's Story: The life and death of a remarkable woman. Chicago: W. Irving Way, 1897. Non-fiction *The Tribune Primer. Denver, CO: Tribune Publishing Company, 1881. **abridged as ''A Little Book of Nonsense. Boston: Mutual Book Co., 1901.A Little Book of Nonsense (1901), Internet Archive. Web, Aug. 11, 2013. *''Culture's Garland: Being memoranda of the gradual rise of literature, art, music and society in Chicago, and other western ganglia. Boston: Ticknor, 1887. ** revised, Chicago: McClurg, 1893. ** enlarged, New York: Scribners, 1896. *''Sharps and Flats (collated by Slason Thompson). (2 volumes), New York: Scribners, 1900. Volume I, Volume II. Juvenile *''With Trumpet and Drum'' (verse). New York: Scribners, 1892. *''Love-Songs of Childhood'' (verse). New York: Scribner's, 1894. *''Nonsense for Old and Young'' (prose and verse). Boston: Dickerman, 1901. *''The Stars: A slumber story. New York: New Amsterdam Book Co., 1901. *The Mouse and the Moonbeam'' (story). New York: privately printed, 1919. Translated *''Echoes from the Sabine Farm'' (Odes of Horace, translated with Roswell M. Field). New Rochelle: Wilson, 1891. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.Eugene Field 1850-1895, Poetry Foundation, Web, Sep. 15, 2012. See also *List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems *"Over the Hills and Far Away" *"The Dinky Bird" * "Ballad of Waller Lot (Buena Park, Chicago)" * Selected Poetry of Eugene Field (1850-1895) (9 poems) at Representative Poetry Online. * Eugene Field at ShadowPoetry (12 poems) * Eugene Field 1850-1895 at the Poetry Foundation * Eugene Field at Poets' Corner. * Eugene Field at PoemHunter (288 poems). * Eugene Field poems at Amherst College ';Prose *Eugene Field prose at Amherst College ;Books * * * [http://quiver.knox.edu/wynkenblynken Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, Knox College's children's and young adult literary publication] ;Audio / video * [http://www.reelyredd.com/1001duel.htm The Duel, aka The Gingham Dog and The Calico Cat] hear song version of the poem ;Books *Eugene Field at Amazon.com ;About * Who was Eugene Field?, biography at Field Elementary School * Eugene Field at NNDB. Category:1850 births Category:1895 deaths Category:American children's writers Category:American columnists Category:American humorists Category:American newspaper editors Category:American poets Category:Knox College (Illinois) alumni Category:Writers from Missouri Category:Writers from Massachusetts Category:People from Amherst, Massachusetts Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:University of Missouri alumni Category:News-Press & Gazette Company people Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Children's poets